Creative Communities Tool Kit

Creative Communities Toolkit Suggestions

Short-term programs (1-3 days)

100 GOC:100 Girls of Code is a free 1-day workshop designed to attract more females to the STEM career field. The 1-day workshops introduce participants to computer programming, website construction and video game development.

Cost ($1,500): GOC provides everything including instructor and assist with marketing and registration a one day session for up to 20 students.

Host will need to provide: space with broadband access, and access to laptops and food/drink

Process: Choose a week that local students are not in school (summer, spring, fall, or holiday break), identify your local champion(s), allow 6 weeks for marketing and recruiting students, secure a local school contact that can help recruit students, please allow 100 GOC 6 weeks or more to schedule facilitators, prepare for logistics and food logistics if needed and identify local tech speakers if available.

Contact: Cherry Daugherty cherry@uceftn.com or call 931-210-5105

48 Hr Launch – The 48HL program, itself, is free. Hosts are responsible for providing personnel to facilitate the event; a space to hold it; meals, snacks, drinks—especially coffee (trust us on this one); tables, chairs, pens, notebooks, whiteboards, resource guides, and take-away pieces. They’re also responsible for securing the all-important funds that go into a 48HL event. For all these reasons, we encourage individuals to collaborate on hosting: pull in local organizations that focus on entrepreneurship.

Each event’s budget will vary based on participation, space, etc., but $7k is a good initial goal to start reaching for 120 days before launch.

Startup Weekend: Startup Weekend is a 54-hour weekend event, during which groups of developers, business managers, startup enthusiasts, marketing gurus, graphic artists and more pitch ideas for new startup companies, form teams around those ideas, and work to develop a working prototype, demo, or presentation by Sunday evening. You must apply to be a startup weekend organizer and if you are selected you will be provided tools to implement your event.

Estimated Cost: $1,000-$5,000

3 Day Startup (3DS) 3 Day Startup (3DS) is an international 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides rapidly delivered, immersive entrepreneurial education programs designed to show students that the best way to learn how to start a company is to start a company. During the 72 hour program, a 3DS facilitator leads participants through hands-on modules that teach ideation, lean canvas, customer discovery, business model development, rapid prototyping, and pitching. Participants turn an abstract idea into a viable venture and receive guidance through structured mentorship. 3 Day Startup runs hundreds of programs at high schools, colleges, and universities in communities in all stages of entrepreneurial development.

Cost: $6,000-$12,000

Host/Organizer: 3DS will provide our curriculum, guidance, and a trained facilitator. Hosts/organizers must provide a date for the program, a venue, food/drinks for participants, and local mentors to attend the program and offer guidance. But the 3DS team will be there every step of the way to help you through the process!

TN Code Academy: Code Academy camps/workshops teach the basics of programming through games and gaming platforms, web and mobile applications. Professional developer’s interact directly with students, emphasizing problem-solving as a spontaneous, fun activity. Students learn computational thinking (CT) and coding individually and as part of a team. When finished, students host a “Demo Day,” showcasing their efforts as a project presentation before adults and peers.

Host will need to provide: space with broadband access, and access to laptops and food/drink

Process: Choose a week that local students are not in school (summer, spring, fall, or holiday break), identify your local champion(s), allow 6 weeks for marketing and recruiting students, secure a local school contact that can help recruit students, please allow TNCA 8 weeks or more to schedule facilitators, prepare for logistics and food logistics if needed and identify local tech speakers if available.

Contact: Cherry Daugherty cherry@uceftn.com or call 931-210-5105

Co.Starters Generator (Short term or Long term curriculums): See the Co.Starters description for more information. The generator version can be customized to run anywhere from 3 days to an entire semester. This shorter version is more geared towards students to teach the process of developing a creative idea into a potential business.

Estimated Cost: $1,000-$5,000

Dev Catalyst: A program developed by theCO (Jackson, TN) that utilizes Treehouse, a self-paced web platform that teaches students of all ages how to build a website, learn code, build an application or start a business.

Adding a field trip to participants to see how their computer programming skills can translate into a career.

Celebration/awards ceremony

Co.Starters: A program developed by Co.Lab (Chattanooga, TN) is a nine-week cohort based program that equips aspiring entrepreneurs with the insights, relationships and tools needed to turn ideas into action and turn passion into sustainable and thriving endeavors.

To get set up the sites will need to contact our team by emailing support@costarters.co. Once we are in contact with them we will help them strategize using the program in their city and set a date for their training. It would be helpful for the sites to have a basic timeline of when they would like to have their training and launch their first cohort in mind when they contact us.

Cost: $5,000 for a license through LaunchTN: Includes a license for 1 year, 1 training and 15% of binders making them $85/participant.

If the sites chose to hold an additional training within the year they will be charged $2,500+travel reimbursements.

Regular programmatic costs, depends on the number of cohorts the site wishes to run each year, but a basic estimate would be as follows:

Lean Launch Pad: A method and set of tools to help entrepreneurs launch and scale a business. There are several solutions offered by the Lean Launch Pad to assist in running an accelerator program that include tools, a curriculum and advisory services.

Estimated Cost: Varies depending upon the program you intend to run; costs range from $10,000-$50,000

Women’s Advantage Program (WBC): The Pathway Women’s Business Center (PWBC) delivers programming and education that accelerates the growth of women owned business. One of its most effectives tools is The Woman’s Advantage® Forum – a proven program for women who own small businesses to receive the structured training and support they need to grow their businesses dramatically. Numerous participants have increased their revenue by 100% – 400% and far exceeded their target of $1 million in revenue. If companies are serious about moving their businesses to the next level, The Woman’s Advantage® Forum is the vehicle to get them there.

Each cohort consists of 10-14 women business owners who meet monthly for twelve months. Each three-hour, face-to-face meeting consists of:

Discussion of pre-assigned reading material and workbook exercises, focusing on how to specifically apply it to your business.

Discussion of current business challenges or opportunities

Establishment of a goal for each member for the upcoming month

Accountability check on each member to ensure that she completes her monthly goal.

Logistics:

Estimated cost of $16,000-$20,000 for 10-14 participants

Professional facilitator provided

Each participant receives a hardcover book, workbook, weekly newsletter, access to audio sessions, and other materials.

Community to identify participant candidates and secure venue

Prefer community to nominate 2 successful business women to serve as guest speakers

Prefer community to nominate 2 local bankers to review participants financials and offer advice